My little pony and the Transformers: First contact
by Mr. Robot
Summary: The Autobots have awoken from a deep hibernation, with wounds from a battle they don't even remember. If that isn't worse enough, they're also in unfamiliar territory, a whole new world called Equestria. With almost all of their forces either dead or missing, the robots in disguise will have to earn the trust of this world's inhabitants in order to find out just what is going on.
1. Discovery

"Wake up Autobot scum!"

Optimus Prime had awoken to the backend of a laser rifle hitting him right in his face. The Autobot leader looked up to see the Decepticon Thundercracker holding him by the neck.

"I said wake up!"

Thundercracker brought Optimus up from his knees to his feet. He was now fully awake, he checked his surroundings to see just where he was at. It was hard to see, his visual receptors were not yet fully functional, so his vision was a bit blurred.

"Are you even paying attention to me? I'm trying to talk to you!"

Thundercracker was about to hit Optimus again but was stopped when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around to see fellow Decepticon Skywarp, "Careful with him, Megatron said he had something special planned for this one."

Thundercracker was a bit hesitant in letting go of his victim, but he finally agreed, "Fine, let's just take him to Megatron already. Alright prisoner! Let's go!"

The two Decepticons grabbed hold of Optimus by his arms and began taking him down a long narrow hallway. Optimus had no idea what was going on. Last thing he remembered was a Decepticon attack on the Autobot's base, many of his troops where either taken down or badly wounded, then he blacked out. A Decepticon must have snuck up on him. Optimus tried to transform, but he couldn't. He wiggled his arms a bit and noticed his hands were bound together with energon cuffs. No creature in the galaxy could break out of energon cuffs, not even him. As they walked, Optimus also noticed jail cells on both of his sides. That's when he realized he was in the Decepticon's base. He was not the only Autobot that had been captured, in almost every jail cell they walked there was an Autobot trapped in it. Some of his greatest troops had been caught; Ironhide, Prowl, Cliffjumper, even the mighty Dinobots had been captured. Many Autobots began to notice Optimus has he walked by.

"Is that Optimus? Optimus Prime?"

"What! They got Optimus! Oh no, we must be really screwed if they got him!"

"Don't worry. I'm sure he has a plan, right Optimus?"

Thundercracker stomped his foot on the ground as hard as he could and yelled, "Quiet down! Unless you all want to be next to see Megatron, I suggest you shut up!"

All the captured Autobots complied. They had lost nearly all hope, know their leader might be on his way to his death.

After a walk that seemed to last hours, Skywarp, Thundercracker, and Optimus finally reached the end of the hallway. In front of them was a gigantic doo, A door that led the the lair of the Decepticon leader himself; Megatron. Sky was about to open the door but was stopped when he heard a strange growl. He turned around and his gaze was met with a small mechanical-like tiger. This tiger was known as the Decepticon named Ravage. Behind Ravage was his maste; Soundwave.

"HALT.", Soundwave had called out with his robotic voice, "YOU MAY NOT ENTER. MEGATRON HAS REQUESTED THERE BE NO VISITORS."

"Relax Soundwave," said Skywarp, "Megatron asked us to deliver him this prisoner, I think you'll know why after you get a good look at him."

Soundwave looked down at the prisoner, and was surprised to see it was Megatron's greatest enemy; Optimus Prime.

"VERY WELL, YOU MAY ENTER, BUT AT YOUR OWN RISK. COME RAVAGE, WE HAVE OTHER BUISNESS TO TAKE CARE OF."

After Soundwave and his pet left, Skywarp had started to open the door, but stopped and turned around towards Optimus with a smirk on his face, "It's been nice knowing ya Prime."

They all walked in the room but where met with a loud 'thump!' and looked down to see the Autobot named Mirage, or at least what was left of him. He had been chucked across the room, Optimus was apaled by this, and his hatred for Megatron grew the more he looked down at his fallen comrade's body.

"Who's next?" asked a dark and menencing voice from across the room. There, sitting right in his chair, was Megatron. He looked at Optimus with an evil smile on his face.

"Thundercracker! Skywarp! You may leave us now; I have no further use of you." Megatron ordered.

"B-but Megatron!" protested Thundercracker, "We wanted to see what you do to-"

He was cut off when a big lazer blast hit him square in the face, killing him instantly.

"Any other objections?" Megatron asked.

"N-no, lord Megatron, I'll just leave now...", answered a now shaking Skywarp.

Skywarp left the room as fast as he could, not wanting to meet the same fate as Thundercracker.

"Now, where was I? Oh, yes, now I remember."

Megatron walked up to Optimus and slapped him right across his face, sending him to the ground.

"You have no idea how long I've waited to do that Prime. I just want you to know that I'm not going to kill you now, no, you see Prime, I want you to suffer, I want to hear you beg, I want you to beg me to forgive you for every single time you've ever defied me. But I know that's not going to happen through the means of torture, you're stronger than that. So I'm going to make you watch as I terminate every one of your troops, every single one, I want you to listen to their screams as I rip their sparks from their very core, and then, and only then, will I give you the pleasure of death."

Laughter began to erupt from Megatron, maniacal laughter. Optimus couldn't believe what was happening, this could mean the very end of the Autobots. No one would be there to stop the Decepticons and their evil regin of terror. He Optimus had to do something, he prayed for a miracle, or at least a distraction. And, as if on cue, right through the door bursted Soundwave.

Megatron had ceased his laughter so he could scold Soundwave for interrupting his moment of triumph, "Soundwave? What are you doing? Can you not see I'm busy?"

"MEGATRON, INCOMING TRANSMISSION FROM SHOCKWAVE. HE SAYS IT IS URGENT."

"Grrr... very well, patch him through."

Soundwave clicked a button on his shoulder and right before them appeared a hologram of the Decepticon scientist known as Shockwave.

"Megatron!" proclaimed Shockwave, "I'm detecting some strange dimensional disturbances in your sector. It appears to be dangerous; I suggest you vacate the area immediately!"

Shockwave was a transformer well known for being able to keep his cool in almost any situation. So when he's freaking out, you know something bad is about to happen.

"Whatever it is Shockwave it will have to wait, I'm in the middle of having a chat with our good "friend" Optimus Prime."

"But, Megatron I-"

Shockwave was cut off when a bright flash of light appeared behind Megatron, capturing his full attention.

"What in the name of Cybertron is that?" asked the Decepticon tyrant.

That was the last thing Optimus remembered before something made him black out.

It was a beautiful day in Ponyville, and all of its citizens were taking advantage of it. Nearly every single Pony in town was outside having the time of their lives, except for one.

"C'mon Twilight!", said Spike, Twilight Sparkles dragon assistant, "Almost everypony is outside having fun! We can't just stay in here all day!"

"You go on ahead Spike", said Twilight Sparkle, "I'm in the middle of an intriguing novel, I don't really have time to play."

Spike gave his friend a worried look. It's just not normal for somepony to stay inside and read when it's such a nice day out.

"Well, ok Twilight, if you say so."

Spike then turned around and ran outside as fast as he could to join the others in their fun.

Twilight couldn't help to feel a little guilty for not going outside with Spike. But then she decided he would be fine. She returned to her novel.

An hour seemed to have passed and Twilight was really getting into her book. She couldn't stop reading it; she was almost done with her book until she felt something move. The whole room itself seemed to shake a little for a few seconds. She took her head out of her book and looked around the room a few times. She shrugged and went back to reading. But then it happened again, and this time it was even worse. The whole room was now shaking rapidly.

"A tremor!" she yelled.

Then, a giant crack revealed itself along the floor. Her floor began to open itself and what happened next shocked her to her very core. A giant mechanical-like creature crawled out of her floor. It was so tall, it left a hole in her ceiling when it came out of the hole. The creature looked down at her with its red eyes and exclaimed, "I... AM... SOUNDWAVE!"

Twilight awoke with a large gasp. She looked around her room, as checking for something.

"Oh, it was just a dream. Thank Celestia!" Twilight laid back down in her bed. She was a bit more relaxed now knowing that what happened in her dream never really happened at all. Although she was a bit curious, "I am Soundwave... who's Soundwave? I've never had a dream so vivid before..."

Her train of thought was interrupted when she heard at the door. She managed to crawl out of bed to answer the door.

"Coming!"

While she was walking, she couldn't help but ponder about her dream some more, "Soundwave... I've had to of heard of that name somewhere... dreams are mostly made up of past thoughts or memories. But I just can't seem to remember..."

Another knock was heard.

"I said I'm coming!"

Twilight had finally managed to reach the door, and when she opened it, there stood an impatient looking Rainbow Dash.

"Dash? What're you doing here?"

"It's about time you opened the door!" answered Rainbow Dash, "Anyways, Pinkie Pie sent me here to remind you about Fluttershy's party."

"Fluttershy is throwing a party? That doesn't seem like her at all..."

Rainbow Dash facehoofed and rolled her eyes before she said, "Uh, no. It's her birthday, don't you remember?"

Any tiredness that was still inside Twilight Sparkle's body had left completely when she realized today was her friend's birthday, "Oh my gosh! You're right! Today's Fluttershy's birthday and I completely forgot! I didn't even get her a present... oh what a horrible friend I am!"

Twilght slammed the door right in Rainbow Dashs face, "Yeesh, I forget things all the time, but she does it once and she has a spaz attack! I need to get less weirder friends..."

Twilight was looking franticly all throughout her home for something to give to her friend. Then she heard another knock.

"Ugh... what now?" Twilight asked herself.

Twilight answered the door once again to find her friend Rarity at the door, "Rarity? What're you doing here?"

"Why Twilight, you haven't forgotten about today have you?"

Twilight let out a loud grunt before answering, "Fluttershy's birthday, I Know. Look, I'm sort of busy so if you could just-"

"That's not what I meant.", interrupted Rarity.

Twilight gave her a confused glance, "It's not? Then why did you come here?"

"Spike and I were going to go on another gem run."

"Gem run?"

"Yes, we recently heard rumors of a cave nearby filled with them! And I believe I remember you agreeing to go with us."

Twilight then realized that she had in fact agreed to go with Spike and Rarity to help try and find this cave, "Oh my, you're right! I'm sorry Rarity. I'm just forgetting everything today! But, isn't it a bit early to go look for gems?"

"It's noon dear."

"Noon!"

Twilight stuck her head outside to see where the sun was, and, judging by where Celestia had placed it, it was, in fact noon.

"Was I really asleep for that long?", Twilight had asked herself.

"Well, you were up a little late last night; I think you said you were reading a book or something. A shame really, it was such a nice day out yesterday and you were inside reading like some sort of shun in! No offence.", Rarity answered for her.

Twilight then remembered something, her dream. In it, it was nice out and she was inside reading, maybe she fell asleep while reading again.

"Twilight?Are you there? You're trailing off."

Twilight lost her train of thought once again when Rarity had spoken up.

"Sorry Rarity," Twilight apologized, "I guess I'm not really myself today. Now, what were you saying about that gem run?"

"Ah yes! We were just about to leave! And before you come with us, well, I don't mean to offend, but I think you should fix up your hair a bit. It's really a mess."

Twilight rushed back inside to find a mirror, when she did she noticed she had a bed head going on, "Oh, ok, just give me a minute to fix that and we can go. We are going to make it back in time for Fluttershy's birthday right?"

"Of course we are!", Rarity answered, "I wouldn't miss it for the world! Now hurry up so we can go."

Nearly two hours had passed and it seemed like Twilight, Rarity, and Spike were all lost. They had been searching for a cave that was rumored to be filled to the teeth with gems. Rarity was in front of their little search group, trying to find this cave. Twilight was following behind her with Spike on her back.

"Are you sure you know where you're going Rarity?" questioned Twilight.

"Of course I do! Now don't worry Twilight, we'll find that cave eventually." answered Rarity.

Twilight simply rolled her eyes before saying, "How do you even know if this cave is real?"

"I know because I got the information on it from a reliable source!"

"It was Ditzy Doo, wasn't it?"

Rarity began to look back and forth nervously, knowing her less than reliable source had been revealed, "Uh... no..."

"Well, I just hope we find it soon," proclaimed Spike, "I'm getting hungry."

Rarity looked back at Spike, giving him a dark glare, "You aren't planning on eating any of the gems we find, are you?"

Spike now had a guilty look on his face, he had been caught, he was in fact planning on eating at least one jewel, "Uh... no... of course not Rarity..."

They walked for another half hour. Twilight's feet were starting to ache. And having a baby dragon riding on her back wasn't helping either.

"Uh, Rarity, don't you know a spell that can track down the location of gems? Can't you try that?", suggested Twilight.

"Sorry Twilight, I can't risk picking up on the wrong-", before she could finish what she was saying Rarity stopped dead in her tracks, causing Twilight to bump right into her.

"Rarity? Why'd you stop? Is there something wrong?"

All Rarity did was stand there and point. Twilight was a bit confused as to what she was doing, until she looked in the direction she was pointing. There, she was pointing towards a mountain, and near the bottom of that mountain was a cave, and inside the cave there was something giving off a shiny reflection. Before Twilight could say a word, her friend took off as fast as she could towards the cave. Spike hopped off of Twilights back and was about to go after her but was stopped by Twilights hoof, "Hold on a second Spike, something about this doesn't seem right."

The two waited for another few seconds until a scream was heard. They then both ran as fast as they could towards the cave. When they got there, all they saw was a frightened Rarity laying on the ground shaking like there was no tomorrow.

"What happened!", asked a now frantic Twilight.

Rarity simply pointed over to another part of the cave. When Twilight and Spike looked over, both of their jaws dropped in unison. For there, right in front of them, was a giant face staring them all down.


	2. Awakening

Today was a special day in Ponyville. It was a day that caught the attention of almost every pony not just in Ponyville, but Equestria. Today was a day where every pony showed their thanks towards Equestria's kindest pony; Fluttershy. Today was her birthday. Lots of ponies were at her cottage helping set up for her special day. Much to her protest though, Fluttershy was a pony who didn't like attention, so having almost every pony come to her home for a party wasn't her idea of a good time. But it didn't matter, all the ponies wanted to show their thanks for all the kind things the yellow Pegasus had done for them over the years.

The Pegasus ponies were in charge of setting up a banner that read "Happy birthday Fluttershy!" on top of her house and were even helping tie balloons to some of the surrounding trees. Unicorn ponies were in charge of decorations, and Applejack and the earth ponies were setting up the tables for Fluttershy's big day.

"Err... come on..." Applejack mumbled to herself as she was trying to open a small plastic bag full of paper forks and knives. She was having a lot of trouble; she tried using her hooves and had now resorted to using her mouth. She pulled hard as she could, and finally ripped it open, sending forks and knives all over the ground.

"Aw dang it..."

Applejack bent down to pick the mess she had made put felt someone tap her on the back. She turned around to see the pink party pony herself, Pinkie Pie. She had a very eager look on her face.

"Hey Applejack, I just thought I should tell you that you never told me what I can do to help out with Fluttershy's party! Now where do you want me?"

Applejack had to roll her eyes at her pink friend before telling her, "Pinkie, now what di ah' say 'bout you helping out?"

A look of disappointment came across Pinkie's face as she answered, "That Fluttershy doesn't want a big party and if I helped out it would become a big party and she wouldn't like it..."

"That's right. It's not that we don't want ya to help; it's just that we want this day ta be as special as possible for Fluttershy. Although it would be nice if some ponies helped out a bit..."

Applejacks eyes were now trained on the sky above her, and up there was Equestria's fastest Pegasus pony; Rainbow Dash, who was now relaxing on a cloud she had plucked from the sky.

"Ah' said, it would be nice if some ponies helped out!"

Applejack was obviously referring to Dash, who responded, "Hey! Quiet down! I'm trying to sleep up here!"

Applejack did her best to contain her anger, but she just had to give her a scolding, "Now listen here, Fluttershy is your best friend! She's done so much fer' you! Would it kill ya to just help out?"

"I am helping!", Rainbow Dash snapped back.

"How?"

"I'm supervising. I can see almost everything from up here, so if anything goes wrong, I'll know about it! Now do me a favor and get back to work!"

If Applejack could fly, then she would've gone up to that cloud and given Rainbow Dash the beating of a life time.

But then, a soft voice could be heard from inside Fluttershy's home, "Uh... Applejack? Can I come out now? If you don't me asking..."

Applejack's anger seemed to disappear completely, and a tiny grin appeared on her face as she answered the voice, "Sorry Fluttershy, but no can do. I wouldn't want you to come outside while we're still workin' on yer' party, it would spoil the surprise!"

"But Applejack, it's time for me to feed the chickens. I can't just let them starve..."

"Don't worry 'bout that, we got it covered."

"But, I barely even want a party..."

Applejacks grin was replaced with a look of shock, "Fluttershy! How could you say that! Everpony wants to have a party on their birthday! Don't tell me that you don't want one! Now don't lie to me, I can tell when somepony's lying to me."

Nothing but silence was heard from inside Fluttershy's home; causing Applejack to assumeshe had one this argument.

"Now where was ah'... oh yeah." Applejacke proceeded to continue to pick all the forks and knives she dropped, but then a loud 'boom!' was heard. The southern pony's head shot straight up out of surprise, but she wasn't alone. Nearly everypony there was out trying to find the source of the sound.

"Hey! Over there! In the everfree forest!" a Pegasus pony shouted.

All cocked their heads to where the Pegasus had pointed, and he was right to point. Smoke could be seen rising into the sky from deep within the forest. But the smoke wasn't the only thing rising in the sky, if you squinted hard enough, you could see a large object ascending into the sky, seemingly being blown away from some sort of blast.

"What in tarnation..." Applejack quietly said to herself.

"Twitchy twitch! Twitchy twitch!"

Applejack turned to Pinkie Pie who's tail was twitching like there was no tomorrow. A part of Pinkie's body always twitched when something big was about to happen. Applejack then turned back to the sky to see that the object had stopped rising, and was now falling, straight for them!

"Everypony move! That thing's heading straight fer' us!" yelled Applejack.

All the ponies complied as they scattered, trying to find a place to hide from the falling object.

"Don't worry Applejack!" Rainbow Dash proclaimed while getting off of her cloud, "I can stop it!"

Dash took off as fast as she could towards the object, but was stopped when she felt a tug against her waist. She looked down to see that she had been tied up by Applejack's trademarked lasso.

She then pulled down to the ground and landed with a loud 'thud!'

"Hey! What was that for?"

"Are you tryin' to get yer'self killed? Not even you could stop-"

Applejack was cut off when the object landed right in front of them, sending smoke and dust everywhere. When the smoke cleared, all that could be seen was a large crater in the place of where a picnic table used to be.

Just then, the door to Fluttershy's house had slammed open, and a frantic looking Fluttershy had come running out of her home.

"I heard a noise! What happened?" she asked.

Everypony had come out of their hiding spots to see what had fallen from the sky. They all crouded around the crater. They all looked down inside and their jaws dropped. What fell from the sky wasn't an object, but a creature! It was big, about as tall as an average house. Most of its body also seemed to be yellow, with two small horns on the top of its head. The creature turned its head to see all the curious but frightened eyes staring at it.

"Uh... I come in peace?"

"Wow Fluttershy!" Pinkie exclaimed, "I guess I didn't need to help with your party at all! It just got way more exciting!"

Fluttershy just simply fainted.

One hour earlier...

Twilight Sparkle had no idea what she was looking at. In all her years of being Princess Celestia's studnet, she had never seen anything like this! Just a few moments ago, her friend Rarity had went inside a cave, thinking it to be filled with gems. But when she got there, she screamed at something, and, being the concerned friend that she was, Twilight and her dragon assistant, Spike, ran to her aid. And now here there they were, being stared down by a huge face. Well, a head to be more exact. Twilight covered her eyes, expecting something to happen. A few seconds passed, and, to her surprise, nothing happened. Twilight slowly opened her eyes, and saw that the head was still there, but it wasn't doing anything. The purple unicorn let out a sigh of relief, "Oh thank Celestia. Its ok guys, I don't it's alive. We're safe."

Twilight heard nothing from her friends.

"Guys?"

Twilight turned around to see that Rarity was still lying on the ground, shaking with fear. She turned back to Spike, who was still entranced by the gigantic head before him.

"Spike? Did you hear me? I said it's harmless. You don't have to be scared anymore."

"L-look... behind it..."

Twilight was a bit confused, "Behind it? What're you talking about?"

Twilight did as she was told, and cranked her head to look behind it. And, once again, she was awestruck. For behind the head were bodies, lots and lots of ginormous bodies.

"Spike... take Rarity and find somewhere to hide..." ordered Twilight.

"What're you going to do?"

"I'm going to get a closer look at these things. Now go!"`

Spike nodded his head and gave a hefty salute. He walked over to Rarity and grabbed by the tail. He then tried his best to drag the frightened pony out of the cave.

Twilight turned back around to inspect these things. She was more curious then scared now. When she got closer to them she noticed just how big these bodies really were. It also made her realize just how big this cave really was in order to fit all these giant beings. She moved in closer towards a red one. She inspected its body closely. She walked up to one of its arms and noticed a small engraving.

"Ironhide..." she silently read to herself, "Could this be its name?"

Just then, she realized something; these things are almost exactly like the creature she encountered in her dream! Could her dream and the discovery of these creatures be a coincidence? She walked over to other ones and noticed they all had engravings as well.

"Bumblebee... Jazz... Ratchet... Sunstreaker... Cliffjumper... interesting, these must be codenames. Why else would they have these strange names engraved on themselves?"

They seemed to be robotic in nature. They were obviously made out of technology that Twilight had never seen before. She also noticed something that they all had in common. Each and every one of them had a strange looking red symbol somewhere on their bodies. What did it mean? Are they cutie marks? No. They couldn't be. As far as she knew, ponies were the only species in Equestria that could get them. Besides, she has never heard of a group of ponies that had the same cutie mark, it was just impossible! But they had to of meant something, maybe the symbols represented an allegiance, but to what? They could've been gang symbols for all she knew.

And then she came across it, the biggest one in the whole cave. It was laid down completely on its back. There were also cracks and dents all over its body, possibly wounds, but from what? She climbed on top of it and read it's engraving, "Optimus Prime... I hope I'm reading this right."

She stood there on its chest. She closed her eyes and her horn began to glow.

"Let's see if I'm right about my suspicions..."

She was using her magic to do something. It was like she was looking for something, and then she found it. Her eyes shot open, and a look of excitement appeared on her face.

"I was right... it's alive!"

Twilight was right. Her magic told her that this creature was alive, but only by a thread. It seemed to be asleep, or in some kind of stasis. But it didn't matter to her. She may of just possibly found a new species of animal native to Equestria. Twilight now found herself jumping all around with glee.

"I just can't believe it... a whole new species... and I found it! Oh I just can't wait to tell the Princess about this!"

Twilight's prancing came to an abrupt end when she felt a sharp pain on the bottom of her right hoof. She looked down and saw that she had stepped on a piece of glass that had broken off the creature. She also held her hoof up to her face that she had cut herself as well.

"Ow... I really need to watch where I'm going. Good thing it's not a deep cut..."

A single drop of blood rolled off her hoof and landed on the creature below her. The blood seeped into an open crack and made its way deep inside the creature's chest. It finally reached what it appeared to be its heart. But it was different than a heart; it was more like a spark. When the drop of blood touched the spark, it reacted, in a big way.

Suddenly, the creature's eyes glowed a bright blue, and started to lift itself up, much to Twilight's surprise. She didn't know what to do; it was her dream all over again!

"Psst, Twilight!"

Twilight turned around to see Spike peaking his head out from behind a huge rock he found, waving one of his arms to signal her to come over to him.

"Twilight! Come on!" he whispered.

It didn't even take her five seconds to jump off the now awake creature and hide behind that rock.

"What's going on? What'd you do?" Spike asked franticly.

"I-I don't know, he just got up and-"

"Shhh!"

They both turned around to see Rarity with a hoof over her mouth, signaling them to be quiet.

"Rarity! You're ok!"

"Twilight! Hush!" shushed Rarity, "It's getting up."

The creature was now standing up, fully awake. It kept looking back and forth, seemingly checking its surroundings. Twilight studied all of its movements. This thing may potentially harm her or friends, but she still wanted to know more about it. It scratched the bottom of its chin, and then lifted its hand up the side of its head. Two antennas appeared to pop out of its "ears" and it began to speak, "Wheeljack, come in Wheeljack. This is Optimus Prime. I repeat, this is Optimus Prime. Is anyone out there?"

The creature now known as Optimus Prime continued to pace back and forth, seemingly talking to himself.

"Wheeljack? Do you read me? What's your status?"

"Who's Wheeljack?" Spike silently asked Twilight.

"I don't know Spike, but I think we should be more worried about what this thing's going to do to us if it finds us here."

Optimus stopped in his tracks when he came across the head the all saw when they first came in the cave. He bent down to get a better look at it.

"Aw Sideswipe... I'm so sorry old friend. I wish there was more I could do."

Optimus backed away from the head, and gave it a quick salute before getting back to what he was doing.

"What was that all about?" Spike asked again.

"I'm... not really sure." answered Twilight, "Maybe it was some sort of tribute. That could've been his friend."

Optimus now walked over to the other bodies. He surveyed each and every one of them.

"I don't know if this will work, but I have to try." Optimus said to himself.

"What's he doing?" Twilight asked no one in particular.

But then she realized it, "Uh oh..."

"Uh oh? What do you mean uh oh?" asked a now frantic Spike.

"I might be wrong, but I think he's going to try to revive his friends."

Spike was now in a panic. "What? They'll find us for sure if he does that!"

"Then let's stop lollygagging and leave while he's distracted!" suggested Rarity.

"Agreed. On the count of three, we make a run for it, ok?"

Both Spike and Rarity nodded their heads in agreement.

"Ok, here we go...one... two... thre-"

"Wait!", Spike interrupted.

"What?"

"Are we going on three, or after three?"

Twilight simply facehoofed, "Ugh, let's just go!"

Optimus could've sworn that he saw something run out of the cave. But that didn't matter now, what mattered is that he had to revive his fallen allies. They seemed to be alive, but only by a thread. They needed energon, the powersource that all Cybertronians require, and for some strange reason, he almost an overload of energon within his body. He had plenty to spare, but he just hopped that the transfer he was about to do would work. He held out his hands, and out of his fingers extended what appeared to be tendrils. Each one connected with a nearby Autobot, transfering as much energon as possible from Optimus into them. But he still had his limits; Optimus could already feel his energy droping at an increasing rate. If he knew that he wouldn't have enough energon for all his comrades, so he only focused on a select few, two of his greatest officers; Prowl and Jazz, His most skilled medic; Ratchet, and possibly his most trusted ally; Bumblebee. He retracted the tendrills, waiting to see if his plan worked. And, sure enough, it did. One by one the Autobots awoken, and were confused.

"What the? Optimus, is that you? What happened?", asked Prowl. Prowl also took a moment to check his surroundings, which made him more confused, "And just where the hell are we?"

"I have no idea Prowl," answered the Autobot leader, "I was hoping that possibly one of you would know."

All four Autobots did their best to try and remember, but, like Optimus, they just couldn't.

"Sorry Optimus," apologized Prowl, "But I just can't seem to remember. I think it might've had something to do with the Decepticons..."

"You always blame the Decepticons." pointed out Bumblebee, "Besides; I don't think they had anything to do with this. Although I do recall them being there when this all happened. I think they captured us, but then something else happened... I just can't remember."

"Well, whatever happened," said Jazz, "it defiantly messed us up. Just look at all these dents and scratchs! It's gonna take me forever to buff them out!"

Seeing as how Bumblebee, Prowl, and Jazz didn't have any answers, Optimus turned to Ratchet to see if he had any input on this crisis, "What about you Ratchet? Do you know anything about what happened to his?"

Ratchet scratched his head out of confusion, "Sorry Optimus, but for the first time since I joined the Autobots, I don't know what's going on. I don't know anything at all about this situation. And I almost always know! All I can gather is that we've been in some sort of stasis, for how long? Well, once again, I don't know."

"And what about the other Autobots? I know we weren't the only ones Megatron captured."

"Dead? Missing? Who knows, like I said before, I just don't know. I'll mark them down as MIA until we come across them."

Optimus was stumped. Nor he or his men knew where they were, or what was going on. The only solution he could think of was to investigate his surroundings more.

"Hey guys! Check it out!"

Everyone turned to Bumblebee who was standing by a pile of what appeared to be guns.

"Check it out! I found our weapons! Let's hope they still work..."

"Well this is somewhat of a start," Prowl stated as he picked up his laser rifle, "We can grab our guns and get the heck out of this cave. Maybe even do some recons work? Hopefully we'll find another Autobot or a human that might know something about what's going on."

"Great idea Prowl, I want you, Jazz, and Bumblebee to set out and try to find some sort of civilization. Do not use deadly force unless absolutely necessary, is that understood?"

"Yes sir!" they all answered in unison.

"Good. Ratchet, I want you to stay here with me and try to help revive the other Autobots."

"I'll try..."

"That's all I need from you Ratchet." Optimus then turned to Prowl, Jazz and Bumblebee, "Autobots, do I even need to say it? Transform and roll out!"

Note: If you're confused about which version of the Transformers I'm using, it's generation one, well sort of, it defiantly has the same mythology as generation one, but I wouldn't say it has the same continuity. As far as appearance wise, they look the same as like they did in generation one, but sort of battle damaged. If you're wondering about what was going on at the beginning, you'll find out in a later chapter.


	3. A grim problem part 1

Inside the Decepticon's underwater base, moments before the unexplained "event" occured...

"Why me?" Starstream asked himself as he stood infront of the entrance to the Decepticon's holding cells. It is here that enemys of Megatron are held captive until an appropriate fate can be decided (most of the time, that fate is death.) And here Starscream was, stuck with guard duty. A few hours ago, the Decepticons managed to achieve their greatest goal; the defeat of the Autobots. They prepaired a sneak attack on their base, where Autobots were either killed or captured. They never saw them coming, Megatron had Soundwave jam all their radars so they couldn't detect them. It was the perfect attack, and here Starscream was stuck with guard duty. Megatron assigned him to make sure all their newly captured prisoners made it to their cells without any trouble.

"How dare he?" Starscream began to complain again, he was now pacing back and forth out of anger, "How dare Megatron make I, the great Starscream, be a stupid prison guard! I want to fight the Autobots, not babysit them! I helped him take down Optimus Prime himself! And he returns the favor by sticking me as a guard in these stupid holding cells? This is grunt work! If I were in charge..."

Starscream unleashed his frustration by punching the wall as hard as he could, leave a gigantic hole. Starscream was now recieving glances from both Decepticons and captured Autobots, who had stopped what they were doing to stare at what Starscream just then.

"What are you all staring at? Get back to work!"

All of a sudden, a fellow Decepticon, Swindle, ran up to Starscream and yelled, "Starscream! We're having a problem with one of the prisioners!"

"Oh great, what now?" Starscream thought to himself, "Which prisoner is it?"

"The Dinobots sir!"

"The Dinobots? They managed to capture the Dinobots?" This was just too good to be true. If there were ever a select group of Autobots that caused Starscream any trouble at all, it would be the Dinobots. Starscream's bad mood instantly disappeared; he's wanted a crack at those Jurassic park rejects ever since they first defied him.

"Show me where they are."

"Yes sir Starscream!"

Swindle took Starscream around the corner where in fact, the Dinbots(Grimlock, Slag, Swoop, Snarl, and Sludge) were being held captive. An evil smile grew across Starscream's face as he saw how helpless they were. The energon cuffs that bonded their hands together were keeping them from turning into their dinosaur modes and breaking free, so they were stuck in their less than impressive robot modes.

"So it is true," Starscream started, "you did manage to capture them..."

"Yes Starscream, but we've been having trouble with the one called Swoop. He's been trying to break free from his cuffs ever since we got here! We've had to stop at least twice now to get him to stop. I was hoping maybe you could-"

"Let him try," Starscream interrupted with an overconfindent grin, "those cuffs are unbreakable!"

"But Starscream I-"

Swindle's pleas went unheard, as the guard Decepticons tried to stop Swoop from struggling, Starscream walked over to Grimlock. He went straight up to the Dinbot leader's face and said, "Oh how the mighty have fallen. If it isn't my old friend Grimlock! How have you been?"

Grimlock did not answer, as he seemed to be trying to ignore Starscream. He was too busy thinking about his defeat and capture. Grimlock had a huge ego, so whenever his pride is hurt, it hurts bad.

"Not talkitive today I see." Starscream joked, "Why are you in such a bad mode?"

Grimlock continued to say nothing, and just stared.

Starscream continued, "Oh is it because you were beaten? Is it because the mighty Grimlock and his Dinobots have finally met defeat at the hands of the Decepticons?"

Starscream was now right in Grimlock's face, his evil smile instantly disappeared, as he was now annoyed by Grimlock's silence, "I've waited for this day a long time Grimlock. You and your ego will finally know the concinquences of messing with Starscream!"

Starscream has never raised his voice this high before, his voiced echoed throughout the hallways, causing Swindle and the Decepticon guards to gaze at him in surprise. Even Swoop stopped struggling to watch. Starscream wanted some type response out of Grimlock, something to let him know that he was suffering. He still said nothing.

"Say something!"

Starscream imediantly back handed Grimlock across the face, this caught his attention. The Dinobot gave Grimlock a dark, cold stare. He gave him a small disembodied growl, and ended with a snort. Swoop was now in full on panic mode. He began thrashing about, nocking any and all guards that tried to restrain him away.

"Me Swoop can't take this anymore!" he yelled. The Dinobots have been known to have speech implement problems. Whenever they talk, they almost always refer to themselves and others in the third person. They were built with more or less "simple" minds. So they can't really help it.

Swoop pulled with all his might, and to everyone's surprise, he managed to break free. Swoop immediantly made a run for it, he transformed into Dinosaur mode (which for him would be the form of a Pteranodon) and flew away as fast as he could. He didn't know where he was going; he just wanted to be as far away as possible from here.

Starscream didn't have time for distractions such as this. He aimed his trademarked null ray at the now hovering Swoop. When he got the shot, he took it. Sending Swoop to the floor, stunned. Swoop tried his best to move, but he couldn't. It hurt him to even think about moving now; he was completely and utterly paralyzed. Starscream's null ray can take almost any machine, no matter the size or power.

"That fool..." Starscream mumbled to himself. He then turned around to Swindle and ordered, "Kill him!"

"W-what?" answered Swindle in a confused manner.

"You heard me; he tried to escape, so I want him dead!"

"B-but Megatron said that he wanted all the prisoners alive!"

"I dont care what Megatron said, I want him dead! Do you really think that this is a good time to question me Swindle?"

Swindle was torn; he didn't know what to do. Normally, any Decepticon would jump at the chance to end the life of an Autobot, but Megatron's orders were clear. Keep all prisoners alive until further notice. No one would ever dare defy the leader of all Decepticons, or the consequences could be dire. But the look Starscream was giving him, it was almost as terrifying as the look Megatron normally would give to a Decepticon who was disobeying orders. He had to make a choice, either get killed by Starscream now, or killed by Megatron later.

Seeing as how Swindle wanted to live now, he carefully took aim with his laser rifle, and pointed it straight at Swoop's face. He could see the fear in the Dinobot's eyes, begging him not to shoot.

"Do it!" Starscream comanded.

Swindle pulled the trigger and a blast of energy bursted from the rifle, connecting with Swoop's face, and sending bits and pieces of him everywhere. It was done. The other Dinobots were apaled. They couldn't believe what had just happened. One of their own had just been finished off right in front of them.

"There," Starscream said as he patted Swindle on the back, "now was that so hard?"

Starscream spun back around towards Grimlock, and approuched him once again.

"Do you see now?" he asked as he pointed towards Swoop's remains, "Do you see what happens when you mess with the might of the Decepticons?"

Grimlock answered with a dark glare. He wanted to hurt Starscream, no; he wanted to end his pathetic little life right then and there. You could see it in his eyes. Any minute now, Grimlock would break free of his cuffs and tear him a new one. But, strangly enough, he didn't. Instead he bent down closer to Starscream's face, now facing him eye to eye. And then he finally spoke, "Me Grimlock... now has Starscream's scent... when Grimlock get out of these cuffs... he will track Starscream down... and Starscream will pay..."

Starscream didn't really know what to say. He never expected Grimlock to say something like that. He didn't let it show, but he was now scared straight. He knew Grimlock would keep his word, as all Autobots do. Grimlock stomped his foot, causing all the Decepticons nearby to jump nearly straight to the ceiling.

"Hehe...", Grimlock chuckled, "Decepticons funny..."

Suddenly, red lights started flashing all over the base. A loud alarm could be heard as Soundwave's voice appeared to be coming out of the intercoms, "WARNING, WARNING, LEVEL 4 EMERGENCY. REPEAT, LEVEL 4 EMERGENCY. ALL HANDS ARE REQUIERD TO EVACUATE IMMEDIANTLY. AN UNKOWN INT-"

His voice was suddenly cut off, leaving only static to be heard.

"A level 4 emergency?" cried out Swindle, "We almost never have to call one of those! This must be bad!"

This was Grimlock's chance. He didn't try to escape before because he knew that he would end up like Swoop. But now, seeing as how almost all the Decepticons were distracted, this was the perfect oppertunity. He pulled with all his might, and shattered the energon cuffs that once held him.

Grimlock immediately transformed into his dinosaur mode (a Tyrannosaurus) and began to approach Starscream. Starscream took notice of this, and all he could say was, "Uh, oh..."

Starscream tried to fire his null ray, but he panicked. Instead he turned he ran down the hallway, wanting to get as far away as possible from Grimlock.

"Hey! Where are you going?", asked Swindle.

"Look behind you stupid!", answered Starscream as he ran further.

"Behind me?"

Swindle heard a growl from behind him; he turned around to see a less than amused looking Grimlock standing there.

"Oh... that's what he meant..."

Grimlock began to close in on Swindle, remembering that he was the one who shot Swoop.

"Swindle... killed Swoop..."

Swindle was now backed up again against a wall, scared stiff, "N-now Grimlock, come on now. D-don't do anything that you would regret.

"Don't worry... me Grimlock won't regret this..."

Grimlock opened his massive jaws, and bit down on Swindle's head, tearing it from Swindle's shoulders. He immediantly spit the head out, proclaiming, "Bah! Decepticons no taste good."

Grimlock turned to his Dinobot comrades, and precceded to help get free from their cuffs. One by one, each Dinobot's cuffs were shattered by Grimlock.

"Dinobots, transform and find the other Autobots! Meet back here when you're done.", ordered Grimlock.

"But, what about you?" asked Sludge.

"Me Grimlock is going to go find Starscream, and have a speacial "talk" with him. Now go!"

They all complied, as each Dinobot transformed into their Dinosaur modes and set off to complete the task that was given to them. Grimlock embarked on his own mission; find Starscream, and kill him.

Grimlock used the monitoring devices located in his nose to pick up on Starscream's scent. He had trouble finding it, where ever the Decepticon ran off to, it was really far away. Grimlock lost his concentration when the wall beside him exploded, sending some sort of object crashing into him, causing him to lose his footing and fall on the floor. Grimlock looked down to see that it wasn't an object that hit him, but the Autobot Sideswipe. Something caused the poor guy to get blasted through the wall, and crash into Grimlock.

"Sideswipe?"

"Grimlock! Thank Primus it's you! You got to help me! There's something after me and- gah!"

Sideswipe clenched his head in pain. He was now back up on his feet and was thrashing all about.

"What Sideswipe doing?"

"Help... me... something's... messing with my..."

Then, Sideswipe's head detached itself from his shoulders, causing his body to plummet to the floor. The head also landed right in front of Grimlock.

"Me Grimlock is confused. Why Sideswipe's head do that?"

Before Grimlock could get an answer, something made him black out

When Bumblebee first took his first step out of that cave, he was a bit surprised. He didn't really expect to see an entire forest outside that cave! It wasn't just any forest, it was a beautiful one. There were trees as far as the eye could see, tall mountains riding along the horizon, plants and animals Bumblebee had never even seen before. This was a rare sight for him, because back on Earth, most of the ecosystems had been disrupted in some way shape or form by the humans. But here, there didn't seem to be any form of civilization at all, besides all the animals.

"Hey Bumblebee, look alive!"

Bumblebee snapped out of his gaze to see Prowl standing before him.

"C'mon rookie," he scolded, "you heard Optimus, we're rolling out!"

"Oh, uh, sorry Prowl..."

Bumblebee liked Prowl, but he could really get on ones nerves. Whenever Optimus put him in charge, he had to let everyone know about it. He would always go around and assert his authority and always following standard procedures. Bumblebee could tell him where to put his procedures...

"Cut the kid some slack!" said Jazz, "He's just checking out the sights, can't blame a guy for being distracted by a forest as huge as that!"

Jazz was like a older brother to Bumblebee. He was always looking out for him. Whenever the other Autobots would tease or make fun of him (mostly because of his height), Jazz always had his back. He was also a cool guy to hang out with.

"Well, unfortunately, we don't have time for sightseeing!", Prowl stated, "We've got to find the nearest human settlement and call for help."

"Well then how about we stop yammering and get going!", Jazz suggested.

"Right, Autobots, transform and roll out!"

They all complied, as one by one, each Autobot transformed into theri respective vehicle modes. Prowl into a police car, Jazz into a Porche 935, and Bumblebee into a Volkswagon. All three drove as fast as they could into the large forest before them, with high hopes that they will find someone (or something) who can help them.

Twilight and her friends didn't know how they've been running. The only thing that was on their minds was to get away from whatever it was that they just saw. Moments ago, Twilight Sparkle, Rarity and Spike wandered into cave looking for gems, but instead, they found something entirely different. In the cave, the three entered bodies of creatures none of them have even seen before. The only thing they could think of to call them would be robots or cyborgs. Robots are normally something they would rule out, mainly because the only time a pony would see a robot would be in a book or a comic, but after their recent encounter, the existence of robots may be something they may need to rethink.

What amazed them the most was their size. They could give an Ursa minor a run for its bits! (Although an Ursa Major might still out class them.) At first, they seemed to be dead or asleep at least. But they were quickly proved wrong. After one of them woke up, they decided it was high time to get the hay out of there. They took a break from running. They may have wandered into the Everfree forest, and stopping there would be a bad idea but their bodies just wouldn't let them move one more inch.

They found a tree to rest by and catch their breath. There was sweat dripping of all of their exhausted bodies. There was a bit of a silence between them, but who could blame them? They just found a cave full of giant talking robots, what was there to say? The silence was eventually broken by Spike. He jumped up with his arms flailing all about while yelling, "Did you guys see that thing? It was so huge, and it could talk! Aw man, what do we do if it comes to Ponyville? It could cause so much trouble! That... uh... er... what was its name?"

"Optimus Prime.", Twilight answered, not even looking in Spike's direction.

"Right, wait, how do you know that?"

Twilight thought back to when she examined the creature's bodies. She remembered that each one had strange sounding code names engraved on them, "It was written on him. Almost all of them had names like that engraved on them. Also, he said it out loud, multiple times."

"Oh."

"Well", Rarity started, "They defiantly were interesting, especially the colors on that Optimus fellow..."

Spike face palmed. He couldn't believe that even in a situation like this, Rarity was still thinking about fashion. Then again, she was Rarity.

"Ugh, Rarity, I love you, but is this really the best time to think about the fashion sense of a giant robot?"

"Yes well... wait, did you just say you love me?"

Spike's checks flushed. That wasn't really something Rarity was supposed to hear. He had to think of an excuse fast, "Uh... yeah. I, uh, love the way you're... sitting there?"

Spike gave the fakest smile he could give, trying to look sincere. Rarity continued to give him suspicious looks.

Twilight ignored them, trying to get her thoughts together. Suddenly, she got a slight headache. She also began to get a little dizzy. Until, a ghostly form began to form in front of her. She couldn't really see it, as it was all white and see through. She could barely make out a humanoid form.

The mysterious apparition held out its finger and pointed straight at her, and began to speak in a soft disembodied voice, "So... you are Twilight Sparkle... apprentice to Princess Celestia... am I correct?"

Twilight slowly nodded her head in agreement, not sure what was going on.

"Good... then I've found the one I've been looking for..."

"Looking for?", Twilight questioned, "Why were you looking for me?"

"That's not important... what's important... is that you manged to alter the future... by waking up the Autobots... you have avoided the confrontation with Soundwave that was for told in your dream... but beware... there are still dangers that you must face... the greatest of them... death."

"Autobots? Soundwave? Who are you and what're you talking about?"

But before she could get an answer, the apparition disappeared, leaving a very confused Twilight.

"Uh, Twilight, Who are you talking to?"

Twilight looked over to see both Spike and Rarity giving her concerned looks.

"You didn't see it?" Twilight asked while pointing her hoof where the apparition was.

Rarity and Spike both exchanged glances before Spike turned back and answered, "No. Uh, what exactly where we supposed to be seeing?"

"Huh," Twilight thought out loud, "They couldn't see it, must've been a hallucination... but still..."

Now Rarity and Spike were very worried about her friend. She now seemed to be talking to herself, had all these years of being the student to Princess Celestia gone to her head?

Twilight stood up, now with a more confident look on her face, "Alright, we'll talk about this later. Now, it's our duty to get to Ponyville and tell them about what we just saw!"

They all nodded their heads in agreement, and took off towards Ponyville.

It had only been a few moments since Prowl, Jazz, and Bumblebee had departed on their mission, all three were crusing along a path they had found in the forest they were in. Already was Prowl stating to give orders, "Alright, this is how it's going to go down. Jazz, I want you to take the lead. Head north while me and Bumblebee will take to the west."

"What?" Bumblebee began to protest, still in vehicle mode "Why do I need to stay with you? I can take care of myself!"

"Because," Prowl answered in a strict tone, "you're just a rookie. Besides, I know how you can get, sending you by yourself could jeopardize the mission!"

As much as Bumblebee hated to admit it, Prowl was right. He had a sort of adventures attitude. Whenever the Autobots were on a mission, Bumblebee was always the first to jump straight into the war zone. It's not that he wants to show off; he just wants to show the others that just because he's young (and relatively short) doesn't mean he's weak.

"Come on Prowl, just let the kid go." said Jazz, sticking up for Bumblebee yet again, "It's not like we're fighting the Decepticons or anything. He'll be fine."

"Are you sure Jazz? Logic dictates that-"

"Just let him go! He needs the experience anyways."

Prowl was a bit reluctant, he didn't want to risk failing the mission or worse, have Bumblebee get hurt somehow. But then again, Jazz had a point; it's not like they're doing a combat mission or anything.

"...alright. Bumblebee, take the lead and head north. If you find anything, let me know. Me and Jazz will take to the west, got it?"

"Yes sir!" Bumblebee answered in an excited tone. He quickly drove in front of their group and quickly gained speed. He then headed north to complete the task given to him. He also blew out alot of smoke out of his exhaust pipe, completely covering Jazz and Prowl in the process.

"Damn kids..." Prowl muttered to himself.

Optimus Prime felt useless. He ordered three of his Autobots to go into a mysterious forest about a half hour ago in order to go look for help. He wished he had gone with them. But he knew he couldn't, his place was here, in this cave with Ratchet. He was surrounded by the unconscious bodies of his Autobot comrades. It was his duty as leader to make sure his troops were ok, and he was doing a poor job at that.

"Sorry Optimus," Ratchet said as he got threw examining another Autobot, "but it seems they're stuck in stasis mode. They've lost a lot of energon, and waking them up now could severely harm them. If only we just had little bit of energon..."

Optimus put his hand on Ratchet's shoulder in a reasuring manner, "It's ok Ratchet, I know you're doing your best. I'm sure Prowl and the others will find help soon."

Ratchet couldn't help at Optimus. He always kept his cool in almost any situation, even ones as dire as this.

"Thanks Optimus, I'll keep trying. Hopefully I'll at least find out why we all went into stasis lock."

Optimus simply gave an approving nod. But then, a thought came to him. If they needed energon to wake up... then how did he mannage to come out of stasis? He also recalled that he had an overwhelming amount of energon before he used it to wake up Bumblebee and the others. Optimus could only scratch his chin as he pondered. He also couldn't help but notice the small blood stain located on his chest...

If you'd ask anypony exactly who the diamond dogs were, they'd always tell you the same thing. That they were theives, cheaters, liars. And they would be right. Yes, Rover, Spot, and Fido have no clean record. They've pulled many things over the years, like kidnapping unicorn ponies to force them to find gems. But recently they've heard rumors of a cave located somewhere on the outskirts of the Everfree forest. And they wanted nothing more than to find it. So they and their diamond dog minions had been searching almost every cave in the Everyfree forest as possible.

They were now in an underground cave, searching every inch of it. They were very tired, but it didn't matter. They wanted those gems more than anything in the world. They don't call them "Diamond" dogs for nothing.

"Argh! I can't take this anymore!" complained Spot, possibly the shortest of the dogs, "We've been in almost every cave in this stupid forest! Are you sure there's one filled with gems somewhere?"

If dogs could sweat, than Spot would've sweated a whole river by now. He was the most tired out of all of them. Fido, the leader, had taken notice of this. He walked over to Spot and smacked him upside the head.

"Ow!" Spot cried, "What was that for?"

"Listen," Fido started while pointing at Spot's chest, "you let me worry about that stuff. What you need to worry about is finding those gems! Now get back to work!"

Spot muttered a swear word under his breath as he complied. Suddenly, Rover, the largest of the group, ran over to Fido while shouting, "Hey boss! I think I found something!"

"What'd you find, Gems?"

"Well, not exactly. I don't really know what it is. I was sort of hopping maybe you could figure it out."

Rover held out his hands to reveal that he had strange little rectangular objects. Fido picked up one to get a better look at it. He carefully examined it, turning it over a few times to see all of its sides. He noticed a weird looking purple symbol on the front of it.

"Hey...", he said, "I've seen one of these before. Yeah, I think they're called cassette tapes or something... I've seen ponies put these in stereos to listen to music."

Fido looked closer at the tape to see if there was a song title written on it later. He only found one word.

"Ravage... that's a weird name for a song..."

He examined the other ones as well to see that they had similar words written on them as well.

"Rumble... Frenzy... Laserbeak... Buzzsaw... hmph. Must be some dumb punk music..."

Fido threw the tape he had picked up back to Rover, "Here, put 'em with the other junk we found. Maybe we can sell this stuff on the black market later."

After just barely cathing the tape, he answered, "Uh... sure thing boss."


	4. A grim problem part 2

It was a beautiful day in the Everfree forest. The sound of nature could be heard all throughout it. The birds were chirping, the bees were buzzing, but the wonderous sounds of Mother Nature were cut off with the disruptive sounds of engines. The little Volkswagen known as Bumblebee passed through this forest, scaring off any wild life that was near him. He was looking for one thing; civilization. He and the other Autobots had found themselves mysteriously waking up in a cave in an unknown forest. Now they are in need of help, and Bumblebee was tasked with finding it. The Autobot had been traveling in circles though, for he was now lost. He had stopped looking help, and started looking for a way out of this forest instead.

"Ugh..." he grunted has he tried to maneuver his way through some trees, "It's official, I hate nature."

Bumblebee stopped in his tracks and transformed into his robot mode to get a better understanding of his surroundings, "I could've sworn that I passed that same tree a stellar cycle ago!"

Bumblebee took a seat on the ground below him, and began complaining about hi dilemma, "Great, first; I find myself in some stupid cave, then; I get scolded by Prowl, and now; I'm lost in a gigantic forest. This day is just turning out great..."

Before Bumblebee could complain anymore, he heard a sound. He perked his head and began looking around.

"Huh? What was that?"

He listened some more, but heard nothing.

"Hmph," he shrugged, "must've been nothing."

Suddenly, he heard the noise again, this time it was slightly louder, "Ok, I know I heard something that time!"

Bumblebee atoned his audio receptors to the noise, he heard a voice. Scratch that, he heard voices! It sounded like there were some people having a conversation.

A grin grew on Bumblebee's face as he said, "Yes! I finally found someone in this stupid place!"

Bumblebee wasted no time in transforming into his vehicle mode and speeding off towards the source of the voices.

It took him a few minutes, he even had to stop a few times to listen to the voices again, but Bumblebee finally located the source of the mysterious voices. He even managed to reach the edge of this accursed forest.

"I found someone, and I made it out of this forest. This is starting to become my lucky day!"

Bumblebee took cover behind some bushes. He stayed in his vehicle mode in order to stay undetected. He didn't want to reveal himself until he was certain that he had found someone who could help, like a human or an Autobot, Primus forbid that he encountered a Decepticon. He looked in front of him to see the voices were coming from a small structure that was built on top of a tree. He recognized this structure as a tree house. He recalled that a lot of Earth children liked to play in these things.

"I better stay hidden," decided Bumblebee, "if there are children in there, I might spoke them. I'll just stay here and continue to monitor their conversation until I can get a better understanding of what's going on here."

If Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle had the choice to have anything in the world, it would be to get their cutie marks. A cutie mark is something everypony gets when they reach a certain age. A mark would appear on the flank of a pony when they realized their special talent; the mark would always symbolize the pony's interests in some way shape or form. Nearly everypony had one, except these three. Almost every day, these three fillies would almost always get picked on for the lack of a cutie mark, that's why they've made it their life goal to obtain one, no matter the cost. They even dubbed themselves the Cutie mark crusaders. Now here they were, in their tree house trying to come up with a way to get a cutie mark. But they were stumped, normally they would come up with some half-brained plan by now but sadly this was not the case today. They've been sitting in their tree house for what seemed like hours trying to come up with something.

"I got it!" exclaimed the young unicorn pony, Sweetie Belle.

"You do?" asked the Pegasus pony, Scootaloo.

"Well then, get on with it!" ordered the southern earth pony, Apple Bloom.

"Ok, here it is... "Sweetie Belle paused for dramatic effect, "we can be astronauts!"

"Astronauts?" questioned Scootaloo.

"Yep! We can all build a spaceship and go to the moon! We'll be the first ponies on the moon! Instant cutie marks!"

Both Apple Bloom and Scootaloo facehoofed. Never before had they heard a more idiotic plan, and they've come up with some dumb ones.

"C'mon Sweetie Belle," said Apple Bloom, "ah can't even spell astronaut and even ah know that's not possible!"

"And besides," continued Scootaloo, "hasn't Princess Luna already been to the moon?"

"Oh yeah..." Sweetie Belle and the other crusaders sulked back into their depressed states. They'll never get their cutie marks as far as they were concerned. All hope seemed to be lost for them. Until:

"Wait!" exclaimed Scootaloo, startling both Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle "I've got an idea!"

Scootaloo turned and pointed straight at Sweetie Belle and asked, "Sweetie Belle! You're a unicorn pony, right?"

"Last time I checked."

"So that means you can do magic, right?"

"Sort of... I don't really know a lot of spells, why do you ask?"

"Because we're going to use magic to get our cutie marks!" Scootaloo answered proudly.

"But... didn't we already try that?" questioned Sweetie.

It was true. Magic was among the many things the crusaders had tried to use in order to get their cutie marks. They've even been able to trick the likes of Twilight Sparkle and Zecora to use magic on them, although both attempts backfired pretty badly... Many other ponies had frowned upon them for using these tactics, but that still didn't stop them.

"Haven't we already tried that?"

"I didn't exactly mean for you to use it on us. I mean you should try to do a spell and see if that helps you get your cutie mark. I heard a lot of unicorn ponies got theirs when they did their first spell!"

As shaky as Scootaloo's plan sounded, it did make a little sense to Sweetie. She had heard many stories of unicorn ponies getting their cutie marks when they did their first spell. Before she could think about it anymore, she already started to get anxious looks from both of her friends.

"Oh... ok. I guess it couldn't hurt."

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom sate down as Sweetie tried to gather her thoughts. She closed her eyes and began concentrating. She wasn't really concentrating on anything in particular though.

"Is anything happening?" she asked, eyes still closed.

"Uh, not really." answered Apple Bloom.

Sweetie concentrated more. She wouldn't let anything stop her, she was too determined for that. At first, she didn't feel anything, but then, she felt something. She didn't know what it was; it seemed to be like some type of spark. Sweetie hadn't felt anything like this before, it was as if it was alive. She focused all her magic on the spark. She could defiantly feel it reacting to her magic.

"Girls, I think something's happening!" she exclaimed.

Suddenly, the whole tree house began to move.

"Does anypony feel that?" asked a curious Scootaloo.

"Feel what?" questioned Apple Bloom.

"Shhh!" hushed Sweetie, "I'm trying to concentrate!"

Sweetie focused even more, and the whole tree house began to shake rapidly. Cracks began to form on the walls, as the whole tree house started to come apart!

"Uh, Sweetie Belle?" Scootaloo said with fear now in her voice.

"Shhh! I said I'm trying to concentrate!"

The tree began to sway back and forth, both Apple Bloom and Scootaloo lost their footing and ended up sliding out the front doorway of their tree house.

"Sweetie Belle!" both screamed as they fell.

Sweetie finally opened her eyes and yelled, "What? What do you guys wa-"

Sweetie stopped talking when she saw both her friends falling out of their tree house.

"Don't worry guys! I'm coming!" she exclaimed as she jumped after them. She would learn to regret that action, as she remembered that unicorn ponies couldn't fly.

"Uh oh..."

All three crusaders, instead of screaming, closed their eyes and braced for impact. The tree house wasn't that high up, but a fall that height could still hurt someone pretty could. Seconds passed, and the crusaders were still waiting to connect with the ground.

"This is a long fall!" proclaimed Sweetie Belle, "Somepony open their eyes and see how close we are to the ground!"

Apple Bloom slowly opened her eyes, and was shocked to her very core at what she saw.

"Uh, girls? You might want to open your eyes..."

The rest of the crusaders opened their eyes and found themselves being just as shocked as Apple Bloom was. They were no longer falling, for they had landed within the hands of one of the biggest creatures that they had ever seen in their entire lives. It was yellow, bipedal, and had two tiny horns on the top of its head. Before they could say anything, the creature quickly but carefully put them down safely on the ground, and then turned around to watch their tree house tumble over.

"No!" it yelled, "I couldn't save the humans!"

The creature dropped to its knees and almost seemed to be in some type of anguish, "What am I going to tell Optimus?"

The crusaders all exchanged glances that were both confused and frightened.

"Uh, girls?" whispered Apple Bloom, not wanting to alert the creature, "Does any of y'all know what in the hay that thing is? Mah big sis told m 'bout all the monsters from the everfree forest, but ah don't she's ever told me 'bout something like this!"

Each filly had to take some time to ponder just what this thing was. Their parents had always warned them about all the monsters that lurked deep within the mysterious everfree forest; they'd always describe each and every one of them so they'd know which ones to avoid. But they'd never told them about ones like this. In fact, it doesn't even seem to be a threat to them. Sure it's huge and could squash them like bugs, but if it wanted to do that, it would've done it already. In fact, if that thing hadn't of caught them, they could've been seriously hurt. It saved them.

"I'm going to go talk to It.", exclaimed Sweetie Belle with a confident look.

"Uh, be careful." pleaded a worried Scootaloo.

Bumblebee couldn't find any words to describe the amount of guilt he was feeling right now. While he was monitoring a tree house he suspected was the source of the voices he heard, it mysteriously began to tumble over. He managed to rescue three horses that were oddly placed in the tree house; he couldn't save the humans he had assumed were inside. As an Autobot, it is his duty to protect all sentient beings. So letting something like this happen went against almost everything he stood for.

"I just wasn't fast enough..." he told himself as he mourned his lose.

"Uh, excuse me?"

Bumblebee snapped out of his guilt trip if only for a brief moment to investigate the source of the voice. His hopes were raised as he began to wonder if one of the humans had survived.

"Hello?" he asked, "Who said that? Show yourself!"

"Down here!"

Bumblebee turned his attention downwards to see one of the horses he had saved.

"Uh, are you behind the horse or..."

The equine gave the Autobot a confused stare before answering, "Uh, you mean I'm the horse, right? Oh, and I'm not really a horse, I'm a pony."

Bumblebee jumped back a couple feet after hearing the horse, I mean pony, talk. This also caused the pony to jump back out of surprise as well.

"What? What is it?", it asked franticly.

"Y-you talked!"

"Of course I did! Everypony talks!"

The pony looked at Bumblebee in an awkward way. It seemed to be studying him a little, looking him over a few times before asking, "You're not from around here, are you? My name's Sweetie Belle by the way, thanks for saving us!"

Bumblebee's optics must've clearly been shot. It's the only explanation he could think of for this. Bumblebee was never much of a nature kind of bot, but he knew enough from Perceptor's and Wheeljack's reports on Earth's wildlife that ponies like this one didn't normally talk. He also noticed something else odd about the pony now known as Sweetie Belle, she had a horn. Bumblebee also remembered that ponies didn't have those either.

"Uh, don't mention it." Bumblebee responded, "Name's Bumblebee by the way."

Sweetie Belle's friends (or at least Bumblebee assumed that they were her friends) walked up to observe him, after knowing that he wasn't going to hurt them.

"Hey there!", greeted the orange one, "Name's Scootaloo! Man, I wish Rainbow Dash was here to see this..."

Bumblebee took note of the small wings on Scootaloo's back, something else ponies weren't supposed to have.

"Whoa," he mumbled to himself, "just gets keeps getting wilder by the minute..."

Last, but not least, the red manned, yellow pony walked up to Bumblebee to introduce herself, "Howdy there! Name's Apple Bloom! Nice ta' meet ya' Bumblebee!"

The little filly had a cute little southern charm to which Bumblebee couldn't help but grin at.

All three fillies got together and proclaimed, "And together, we're the Cutie mark crusaders!"

They stroke valiant poses (or at least valiant by their standards) in an attempt to impress Bumblebee.

"Huh, just wait till I tell the other Autobots about this!"

Before anybody could tell anybody anything, the ground itself began to tremor, causing the crusaders to fall out of their poses.

"What the?"

Bumblebee turned back to the fallen tree house to see that something was coming out of the groud where the tree house once stood.

"Uh oh." Bumblebee said to himself, "Looks like whatever knocked over these guys tree house is about to rear its ugly head..."

"Crusaders, stay behind me!" Bumblebee ordered the filly trio, "I don't know what's about to come up out of the ground, but I don't think it's friendly! It could be a Decepticon for all I know!"

"A Deceptiwhat?" asked a confused Scootaloo.

"Just stay behind me!"

Bumblebee got into a fighting stance as the crusaders fell back behind him. He was ready for anything that wanted to start trouble. He could see a head try to rear itself out of the ground, and eventually the rest of its body followed afterwards. The being appeared to be some kind of robotic monster, Bumblebee could've sworn he had seen something like this before, and then it hit. He knew exactly who this was, and he wasn't happy that it was him.

"Me Grimlock not amused!"

Colgate finally began to regain conciseness. She had no idea what was going on, all she remembered was that she was on her way to Fluttershy's cottage to help with her birthday party, then she was ambushed by some weird bat-like creature, and then everything went dark. And now here she is, lying down on a cold, metal table in an dark room. She tried to lift her right arm but couldn't. She looked over and saw that her arm was being held down by a strange glowing restraint. The same with her left arm and legs. She began to panic; she started to thrash all about as she began to scream, "Help! Please, if anypony can her me, help!"

"If you'll be so kind as to stop doing that, it took me so long to make those energon cuffs to restrain you. It would be a shame if anything happened to them."

Colgate stopped her struggling to see who was in the room with her, "W-who said that?"

As if on que, a bright light beamed down on her face, hurting her eyes, and a large figure revealed itself in front of her.

"That would be me, my dear."

Colgate didn't know what to make of the figure. Its height was amazing. It was almost as tall as an average house. The most noticeable thing about him, was that he had no face. No mouth, no noise, no chin, just one yellow pupil less eye that blinked a yellow light every time he talked.

"W-who are you?"

The figure continued to monitor her before turning to a large tray of assorted what she assumed to be surgical tools, "You do not need to trouble yourself with that knowledge Miss, Colgate was it? Just know that I'm going to be your best friend for the next hour or so."

Colgate started to struggle again, knowing what this mystery being had planned for her was not good. But then she realized something, she was a unicorn pony! She could use her magic to get out of this! She focused all her magic into her horn, but got no reaction.

"What the, what's wrong with my magic?"

"Energon cuffs." the figure answered as he continued to fiddle with the surgical tools, "I have modified them to deal with this "magic" you flesh creatures love to use."

After hearing this, Colgate lost all hope, knowing that her best bet of escaping this mad man had just been thrown out the window.

"You flesh creatures are an interesting bunch," he continued, "defiantly more interesting than those dirty humans. You are all made up off four different sub-species, each having its own assortment of special abilities. I've been able to find ways to convert your "magic" into energon, with surgical means of course. And now you know why you're here, which I'm sure you were wondering. As the phrase goes "Knowing is half the battle"."

The figure finally found the tool he was looking for, "Ah, here we are. Now, don't worry, I don't mean you any harm." he said as he turned back to Colgate, "But that doesn't mean I won't cause you any."

Suddenly, a loud screech pierced Colgates ears, hurting her eardrums.

"Hmph, it appears my little friend has returned, if you'll excuse me."

The figure held out his arm, and a strange, robotic, bat-like creature flew in and landed on the tip of his finger. Colgate recognized it as the creature that attacked her earlier.

"Ratbat, back so soon? What have you to report?"

Ratbat let out a collection of screeches, which continued to hurt Colgates ears.

"No... It can't be. The Autobots are awake? No... I've been doing these operations in Equestria for Primus knows how long; these flesh creatures have shown little opposition to me. The only ones who'd be able to stop me are the two alicorns, Celestia and Luna, but I've been able to stay out their way, but with the Autobots thrown into the mix... unacceptable!" he yelled as he slammed a fist down onto the surgical tray, "I must not have this! In order to continue with my plan, the return of the Decepticons must begin now! Ratbat, I want you to monitor the Autobots, if they come in contact with the elements of harmony, let me know."

Ratbat nodded as he flew away to carry out the task that was given to him.

"Now, where were we?" asked the figure as he turned back to a frightened Colgate, "Ah, yes, our unfinished business."

Colgate could only gulp as she faced her uncertain fate.


End file.
